'68 Charger LED lamp conversion ('69 pics too!) Plus Halo Headlight Conversion

[Grim Jhaixus]

 

Bookmarked this thread. Man, I was ready to head to the junkyard with a saw and see what I could find and make fit!

Not going to do the wheel lights, but my dash went dark long ago I'll be sure to post if my attempt is successful.

Awesome thread. I keep saying time surfing here is more important than sleep!

[Rebel]

Hey there, just read through this thread and found it very useful and its encouraged me to try some similar upgrades on my Charger. The mechanical voltage regulator on the back of my gauge cluster recently gave up, while I had the cluster out to replace it with a more modern electronic version, I removed the circuit board and cleaned it up ( the copper plating had gone dull ) by rubbing it lightly with 120 grade sandpaper, also sanded the base of the nuts that hold the gauges in place so I could get a good contact.
Then I thought of replacing all the cluster bulbs with LED's, my local auto parts place had all the bulbs I needed, after installing and testing them, they work great. They show a subtle blue ish white glow that works very well for illuminating the gauges, as well as the parking brake warning light and direction indicators.
I used white LED's, I'm sure there'll be other colours available though.
I'll post some pics of the bulbs I used tomorrow, so you know what to look for if you want to do the same

[xoman60]

I'm a fan of LED's as well and this thread is a big reason why. I purchased one 1157 red superbright cnc from the Mustang Project so I could try it out. They are 40 bucks a piece so not cheap. Result was awesome so I ordered 5 more. I'm converting the 2 inner tail lights on my 69 to 1157 also. I will probably convert everything to LED eventually.

[cjw916]

I thought I'd post an update.

These are the Halo lamp housings I got from RedLine Lumtronix.

They are 39smd LEDs around the lamp housing. They are AmazeBalls bright! They are blindingly bright! They illuminate road signs & ditches like a foglamp, they are quite bright! I like that fact, but, at times, oncoming cars would 'bright' me, thinking I had my bright lamps on. . .

The last pic is just the Halos, no kidding, they're bright. LOL

[cjw916]

So, I thought I'd try Oracle's Halo housings & new 2ndGen LED headlights.

The halo housings are 96 LEDs around the housing, they are much smaller LEDs than the RedLine Lumtronix housings & create more of a continuous halo look, and they are considerably less bright, so they're more 'subtle', if that is the look you're going for. . .

The Oracle lamp housing is plastic, vs the metal housing of the RLL offering (both have real glass fronts). It feels like 'cheaper' quality, but I'm sure the plastic is durable?

The install starts by inserting an H4 adapter housing to accept the universal Oracle LED lamp.

Then, you install a rubber boot similar to the RLL housing.

[cjw916]

The Oracle LED lamps come with a heat sink attached (and a real fan to cool them) with an in-line LED driver box (that's what they call it, it's not a transformer like an HID lamp uses, I think it's mostly just a 'cushion' in case of voltage spikes) and a single blue plug that inserts right in your existing wiring plug.

The lamp inserts in the adapter, and turns clockwise to lock in place.

The lamp does stick out the back just a bit, I am anxious to see how close it comes to my headlight door bars. . .

The single CREE LED lamp is surprisingly bright. It appears to have a bluish-white tint, similar to the HID 6000k lamps. It is very similar to the color of the Oracle halo LEDs.

To be clear, each Oracle LED headlight lamp has 2 CREE LEDs, one for dim & one for bright, opposite each other on the lamp. One lights for dim & the other is on when on bright; they are never both on. . .
(edit: When on bright, BOTH CREE LEDs light! Sweet! More light!)

I'll post an update once I install the housings & lamps. (please clear the door bars!)

[MxRacer855]

    

[Aussiemadonmopars]

Hey CJW, did you get the LED's to work? They look like a better alternative.

[cjw916]

The headlights? Haven't installed them, yet. It *just warmed-up here. :-) I'll post the install & night pics, soon!

[Aussiemadonmopars]

Wow, it must of been a long winter there then.  . We're expecting a ton of pics and a report back to us soon ASAP.   

[cjw916]

I got the new Oracle Halo housings in along with the Oracle LED headlights.

First pic is to illustrate how disappointed I am with the Oracle Halo housings. They are $150/pair, so $300 for the 4 of them, and they don't friggen sit in the detents, not at all! ! ! There's 3 tabs on the back of the housing and there is NO WAY to get all 3 to line up in the tabs. After trimming 2 tabs completely off (leaving the flat raised area, so the lamps will atleast sit 'square' in the housing) AND trimming the 3rd tab so half of it's gone, I was able to rotate the housings so they sit square. The first pic is to show how the right one sat, before trimming & rotating it so it would sit square. Also, to get them in the factory buckets, there's a vent hole in the housing at 12 o'clock, that had to be trimmed down nearly flush with the back of the housing (I used a Dremel & cutoff wheel, from the taste of the dust, I'd say the housing is a kind of fiberglass resin, it's definitely not just plastic). Also, the round extension with the rubber boot on, is of larger diameter than the circular opening in the stock bucket; so, I had to employ a sharp pair of red-handled right-hand Wiss tin snips to enlarge the opening approximately 1/4" all the way around the hole. I believe MANY will object to carving up their 45 year old classics!

Second pic is just the Halos on.

Third pic is with the Dim headlights on. You can see the slightly yellower appearance of the lights.

Fouth pic is with the Bright Headlights on.

[cjw916]

The Oracle LED headlight (which I love, LOVE LOVE!!!) clear the stock hide-a-way headlight doors by plenty. Lots & lots of clearance. The lamps have integrated heat sinks & little fans even, to keep them cool, should they get too warm (sitting in traffic?). You cannot even hear the fans when they're running, they're computer fan quiet.

The only connection is to wire the Halo leads to a separate power source, and to plug the blue connector into your stock wiring plugs. The inside lamps plugs into the 2 prong hi-beam plug, leaving the low beam lead exposed, if you wanted to run all 4 lamps as low-beams, you could run a jumper wire over & connect the exposed tab to the other low beam lead. The LED lamps draw such low current, the stock wiring is plenty to run all lamps. I might connect my inside lamps & run 4 low-beams in the future? ? ?

Pics are doors open (lights on) then doors closed; passenger, then driver's side.

[cjw916]

Installed. After removing the tabs & rotating the housing, they sit square. (pic 1)

Pic 2 is all 4 housing installed.

Pic 3 is daylight Halo housings turned on.

Pic 4 is a detail view of how the Oracle housings look more like a continuous Halo, because they have 96 smaller LEDs around the perimeter.

[cjw916]

1st pic is Dims.

2nd pic shows how the top CREE lights to reflect off the top of the reflector.

3rd pic is Brights.

4th pic shows how BOTH the top & bottom CREE are lit to reflect off both the top & bottom of the reflector, and throw the most light.

The Oracle LED headlights can be slightly rotated in their adapter housings so that they're perfectly square to the road. Looking at the last pic, it appears I need to turn the left lamp just a couple degrees clockwise. :-)

[cjw916]

Looking at the headlight pattern on a building, the dims are equally balanced and dispersed. The brights are a bit more center-focused and higher, to see further up the road.

On road pattern evaluation reflects what's shown on the side of a building. The dims are down & wide as to not blind on-coming drivers. The brights reach further and illuminate more.

The light is brilliant white. The visibility is greatly improved over Halogen H4 lamps!

Road signs, while driving, are certainly more visible further away than with Halogens. And the Halos also illuminate road & traffic signs longer, when they normally get dim as your headlights fall past them, the Halos help to keep them ultra-visible right up until you pass them. Driving downtown Milwaukee last night was kinda trippy! It was like you had an LED flashlight shined at every traffic pattern sign! Super safe, super visible.

I'll try to post a traffic sign pic, sometime when I'm out driving.

In summary. . . I love the RedLine Lumtronix Halos! They fit perfectly, no trimming to make them fit. And they are plenty bright! I would prolly recommend using a dimmer, the one I linked earlier has memory, so once you set it where you like it, it'll always come back on at the same level, when you power it on.

I also LOVE the Oracle LED headlights! The install is SUPER easy. The lamps are BRIGHT and definitely increase visibility tremendously over sealed halogens, or an H4 Halogen conversion.

The Oracle Halos are terribly over-priced for the quality. The RLL Halo crushes the cheesy Oracle Halo. They look good, once you make several concessions to get them installed, but the headaches are not worth the effort, in my opinion.

[cjw916]

Have I said how much I LOVE the Oracle H4 LED headlights? Man! They are bright! It's kinda weird, they click on, stay on, don't dim, not at all, at idle; they don't even dim when the car stalls (cold this morning, snubbed her backing out my driveway) they don't dim when you're cranking the engine! (Must be the little Voltage box inline w/ the power lead?) They really must be stingy w/ their power usage! (I did the headlight relay upgrade, so the Voltage comes straight off the Alternator post, through a fuse & the relay to my headlights; doesn't go through my dash Amp gauge). I'm interested to put a MultiMeter on a lamp to see the current draw! My old Halogen H4 bulbs on bright drew about 7Amps per lamp (I've read that a standard H4 puts out 1100-1500 lumens and draws 55-60watts, 5Amps, to do so, so I'm in the ballpark). I wouldn't be surprised if these LED are less than 2Amps each, on bright! I just checked their website, they advertise 2,200 lumens per bulb and 30,000 hours life w/ 2 14W CREE LEDs per bulb, so 28Watts per bulb (28/12V=2.33Amps per bulb x 4 bulbs = 9.33Amps for all 4 on bright!) That's CRAZY for the light these things throw!

Note: 2,200 lumens is not twice as bright as 1,100 lumens. (Well, it IS, and it isn't) Lumens are a measure of light intensity over distance, so yes, they're twice as bright 1" from the bulb, but light intensity falls w/ the square of distance; similar to how loudness of sound drops intensity w/ the square of distance. The actual equation in I = P / 4πr^2 or Intensity = Power divided by 4*3.14*D*D where D is the distance. So, for the lights to be visibly brighter, yes, they are brighter & have greater visibility, but 2x the lumens does not = twice the viewing distance; it basically just means you can see better, at any given distance, which you can.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Looks great! I just did a similar LED headlight install and the output from the bulbs is amazing. 

[Musicman]

Good information 

[cjw916]

Some guys asked about interior and dash bulbs. . . I finally got around to doing my interior. This chart was pretty accurate. I just went to www.superbrightleds.com and searched for each bulb by the number listed on the '69 bulb chart. Several options come up for each lamp. I chose similar lumens for things like dash illumination, but chose greater lumens output for lamps like interior lighting & the dome light & trunk light. I also got an IVR4 5V solid state voltage limiter for my gauges from http://www.rt-eng.com/rte/index.php/RTE_limiter

[cjw916]

For the dash gauge illumination, high beam indicator, and the turn signal indicators, I used the BA9s and 194. They put out 25 lumens and 35 lumens, a similar amount of light as the stock 4300k incandescent bulbs, but in a cool white light, around 6000k.

[cjw916]

I used the BA9s-5 LED lamp for the Brake System red lens lamp. It puts out 96 lumens, which is 4x the light of the standard BA9s. This bulb is super bright and would be too bright to use to illuminate the gauges.

I have 4 (2 in each footwell) 194 blade style lamps under my dash to illuminate the floor as you enter. I wanted MORE light here, so I used the 194-6 blade lamp, it puts out 106 lumens, which is about 3x the light of the standard 194. This bulb is super bright and would be too bright to use to illuminate the gauges, but illuminates my floors great!

[cjw916]

I used the 1142 as the map light, dome light, and trunk light. It throws off 167 lumens, which is definitely more than the stock bulbs in these applications, but, I wanted more light from these sources.

I used the BA15s as the license plate lamp. It throws 70 lumens, which is prolly twice the light of the stock bulb. I had to trim the little plastic protective surround in order to fit the lamp inside the rear housing, but a Dremel made quick work of it.

[cjw916]

So, here's my before and after pics.

The two main gauges, before and after. The LED lamps definitely put off a whiter (almost bluish hue) light. It makes the gauges a bit brighter, in my opinion.

The four gauge cluster, before and after. All of my gauges work, I didn't have the car running for the pics. They could use a good cleaning, though. . . another day. :-)

Yes, my damn Tach crapped-out on me and is stuck at 5k rpm. Russ is going to rebuild it for me for $60.

[cjw916]

The map light and courtesy lights I have installed under my dash, before and after. The LEDs are MUCH brighter.

The dome light, before and after, you can see how much 'whiter' the LED lamp is.

[cjw916]

Driver's & passenger's floor shots, before and after.

The courtesy lights I installed REALLY illuminate the interior MUCH more with the LEDs than with the standard incandescent bulbs.

I like the overall look. It takes a couple days to get used to the brighter WHITE light from the LED lamps, and you lose a bit of the 'nostalgia' by replacing the warm incandescent lamps with the cooler white LED lamps, but I like my LEDs. As an added bonus, I could leave my interior lights on, for a week, and the car would still start right up, because the LEDs use almost NO power compared to an incandescent bulb.